{"id":22871,"date":"2012-10-14T08:37:36","date_gmt":"2012-10-14T13:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=22871"},"modified":"2013-02-05T17:38:50","modified_gmt":"2013-02-05T22:38:50","slug":"live-marty-friedman-concert-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2012\/live-marty-friedman-concert-review\/","title":{"rendered":"LIVE! | Marty Friedman"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alissa Ordabai<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

October 12, 2012 at The Underworld Club, London, United Kingdom<\/h3>\n

\"MartyFor many the choice this evening was between going to see Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John Paul Jones at the London premiere of Led Zeppelin\u2019s new film \u201cCelebration Day\u201d or seeing Marty Friedman play at the Underworld. For shred fans it was a no brainer, and as Friedman jokingly said to this writer after the show, the two options were \u201chearing Jimmy Page talk or me play.\u201d No need to say why the crowd which jam-packed the 500-capacity Underworld on the night chose what they chose.<\/p>\n

But the audience was made up not only of Londoners, but also Swedes who travelled to see the show all the way from Stockholm, Italians, Poles, London-based Japanese, and even a married couple from Jordan. Friedman took two very different guitar players with him on this tour \u2013 French neo-classical shredder Stephan Forte who grew up on Friedman\u2019s material and calls himself his fan, and an Israeli guitarist Jossi Sassi who adds an elegant Middle Eastern touch to the rock formula.<\/p>\n

Both highlighted the variety of styles on the instrumental guitar scene these days – Forte going all-out with his high tech solos and an exuberant, symphony-like approach to composition, and Sassi offering a more down-to-earth mix of soft- and prog-rock grounded with world music sensibility.<\/p>\n

But it was Friedman\u2019s set which became the main barn-burner on the night. According to his Facebook post the next day, it was \u201ceven more fun than last year\u201d. When he played in London last time, it was with his Japanese backing band, so naturally the 2011 show leaned more towards Japanese-style material. Tonight it was an entirely different trip \u2013 twice as aggressive, at times utterly ferocious, bursting with volatile energy, but also remaining a clockwork-precise affair. <\/p>\n

Which is astounding given that musicians who back Marty on this tour haven\u2019t been playing together for very long: the drummer has been brought from Japan, and the rhythm guitarist and the bass player have been borrowed by Marty from Sassi\u2019s band. But this line-up sounded so tight and the rhythms section so perfectly in synch with each other and the guitar that you wouldn\u2019t have known they\u2019ve had little time to rehearse. <\/p>\n

An exhilarating rollercoaster from the word go \u2013 from Friedman\u2019s early solo stuff, to Japan-era numbers, to Megadeth classics, his set connected with the crowd immediately. It was staggering to see Friedman – who is perhaps the lankiest guitar player in rock – to exude such roiling intensity. Hair flying, Pete Townsend-style propeller right hand, frenzied headbanging, and classic guitar hero moments when he would kick his head back and throw down a wailing solo, all this went to show that it\u2019s showmanship that turns talent into a luxury. And the ultimate in live music luxury was what the crowd was experiencing on the night, so organic was the synergy of Friedman\u2019s space-rocking tunes, virtuoso chops, and stage presence.<\/p>\n

\"MartyThe packed venue cheered him on, chanted \u201cMAR-TY, MAR-TY\u201d, and pumped their fists in the air as he was coming down with torrential showers of notes and machine gun metal riffs. But it wasn\u2019t just about his virtuosic rhythm playing, or flashy soloing technique. As always with Friedman, there were plenty of unusual East-meets-West scales, unexpected improvisational detours, and his trademark juxtaposition of pull-all-the-stops emotional abandon of and calculated precision of execution.<\/p>\n

It was – of course – impossible to keep up with the neck-break pace Friedman unleashed from the very start, and after a while time came to give himself and the audience a breather with more melodic material. The contrasts between the intensity of the thrash numbers and more contemplative Japanese-style tunes is where it\u2019s at with Friedman these days and where his true personality of a cultural explorer comes forth.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s when he plays metal, however, that the audience in London loves him the most, and \u201cTornado of Souls\u201d became the biggest standout of the show. Other highlights included \u201cBallad of the Barbie Bandits\u201d (written, according to Friedman, about two blond girls he saw on the news who have robbed a bank and made him think it was a cool story), and \u201cStigmata Addiction\u201d \u2013 a fierce number with shred fireworks set over an exhilarating, hypnotic riff. Another special moment was the call-and-response exchange during \u201cDragon Mistress\u201d between Friedman and guitarist Ben Azar during who is a formidable guitar force on his own right.<\/p>\n

After a 90-minute pull-all-the-stops full stretch Friedman still found time to come out and speak to the fans. Backstage at the meet-and-greet the crew and musicians were the most diverse, most intriguing bunch this writer has ever seen \u2013 Americans, Japanese, Israelis, and Frenchmen, offering a glimpse into the inner workings of the cross-cultural environment Friedman created for himself these days. <\/p>\n

And you suddenly began envying Marty Friedman \u2013 not for his superhuman ability as a musician and as a performer (which are pointless to envy), but him leading such a rich, varied life where he doesn\u2019t have to bow to the demands of the industry and does things on his own terms. His vision has worked perfectly to now allow him to do what he chooses to do, and to surround himself with fascinating, brilliant people, a vibrant mix of cultures, which makes his life so much more fulfilling than what corporate rock has to offer to the majority of his peers. <\/p>\n

Set List:
\n1. Namida (Tears)
\n2. Bad D.N.A.
\n\"Marty3. Gimme a Dose
\n4. Street Demon
\n5. It\u2019s the Unreal Thing
\n6. Amagigoe
\n7. Ballad of the Barbie Bandits
\n8. Tsume Tsume Tsume
\n9. Elixir
\n10. Stigmata Addiction
\n11. Asche zu Asche \/ My Oh My (Mutation Medley)
\n12. Forbidden City
\n13. Tornado of Souls
\n14. Devil Take Tomorrow
\n15. Ben Azar Guitar Solo
\n16. Novocaine Kiss
\n17. Angel
\n18. Salt in the Wound
\n19. Ripped
\n20. Yuki No Hana
\n21. Kaeritakunattayo
\n22. Dragon Mistress
\n23. Thunder March<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alissa Ordabai – Senior Columnist — October 12, 2012 at The Underworld Club, London, United Kingdom For many the choice this evening was between going to see Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John Paul […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6816],"tags":[674,164,2774,738,334],"class_list":{"0":"post-22871","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-arcconrvw2012","7":"tag-concert","8":"tag-live","9":"tag-london","10":"tag-marty-friedman","11":"tag-review"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22871\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}